You've heard about Christmas gifts coming down a chimney, but did you know they also float down from airplanes attached to parachutes?

Since 1952, the U.S. Army has been dropping huge packages every year for the holidays while flying over islands in the Pacific.

The tradition of giving, called Operation Christmas Drop, has become the longest-running U.S. Department of Defense mission in full operation-bringing joy and supplies to Micronesia.

It doubles as a training mission, teaching new troops how to deliver humanitarian supplies from cargo airplanes, to be prepared in case of disaster.

Each parachuted crate contains 400 pounds (180 kg) of toys, school supplies, and items such as clothing, shoes, powdered milk, canned goods, and fishing nets and gear.

They arrive in the water just off shallow beaches in order to avoid hitting the locals.

Money is raised for the operation by sponsored activities like golf tournaments and sponsored runs, and though donations from local businesses. Volunteers assemble the boxes in Guam at Andersen Air Force Base, with crew and aircraft coming also from the 36th Airlift Squadron at Yokota Air Base in Japan.

In 1951, the aircrew of a WB-29 aircraft from the Guam base, was flying a mission over the Micronesian atoll of Kapingamarangi when they saw the islanders waving to them. The crew quickly gathered some items they had on the plane, placed them in a container with a parachute attached and dropped the cargo as they circled again.

"We saw these things come out of the back of the airplane and I was yelling, 'There are toys coming down,'" said a witness to the first drop on the island of Agrigan.

At the time the island had no electricity or running water, and the islands were periodically hit by typhoons. Some of the first containers failed to arrive where intended, and islanders swam out to retrieve some, while others were discovered months later some miles away.

By 2006, 59 islands were the recipients of 140 boxes, using repurposed parachutes. The 2011 operation included dropping 25 boxes of IV fluids to Fais Island in order to combat a local outbreak of dengue fever.

In 2015, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and the Royal Australian Air Force participated in the operation for the first time. The two countries each provided one C-130 plane to join the three provided by the United States-and continued their participation in future missions.

This year in during six days in early December, the Royal Canadian Air Force supplied Secret Santas for the first time, working with crews that included The Republic of Korea and The Philippines. They delivered 210 bundles of supplies inside crates decorated with holiday scenes to benefit more than 42,000 residents of 58 islands throughout Micronesia and Palau.

The story of Operation Christmas Drop became a 2020 Netflix rom-com film, too. Watch a video dropped this month by the USAF about this year's operation…

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